Investing in everything else except yourself?

I have known leaders who are there for their team, their board, their customers, but not for themselves….. They are so focused on investing in everyone else that they forget about themselves! I have to confess that I also know this firsthand because I was that person earlier in my career. I didn’t know what on earth people were talking about when they said I needed to take time for myself… but there's so much to do I thought, there's not enough time, I'm already working really long hours …… So I did what many of us would do. I totally ignored these wise people around me…… but while you can work like this for a while, it's not sustainable, nor is it productive for you or the organisation or business that you're leading. Sooner or later you will run out of steam, become disillusioned and burnt out.

What I didn’t realise at the time was that it wasn’t that I had to work faster, I had to work smarter. I was so caught up in ‘doing’ that I believed I didn’t have time to invest in myself and anyway what on earth did that mean???

Over time I learned that investing myself meant putting myself on the list, making time for me, acknowledging I had needs and that in order to be effective and more successful I had to take time out and get in that metaphorical helicopter and look at what was going on from a totally different perspective. With the help of a great coach, who asked me tough, challenging questions I was able to see things differently, to look at what was really important and take steps to ensure I kept focused on the things that were important for the future and not just the things that were urgent. I was also able to learn about myself and learn strategies to help keep me energised and motivates and inspired so that I was able to fully jump back into what was going on.

So what did this investment require of me? Oh….. one hour, once a fortnight....And what was the return on my investment? ….. Oh it was priceless….. It transformed me and my world. It made me feel like I was in the driving seat and took me from a reactive place to a proactive place!!

My fear had been that if I stopped I'd never be able to catch up, but actually, it was in the stopping (don’t you just love the paradoxical nature of life) that I was able to be more focused, more strategic and more conscious about what was going on around me and who I was in all of that.

What will be the thing that will make you stop and look at how you are doing things?

Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller in their new book Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life say, "Growth is what separates living things from dying things, growth brings energy, vitality, life, and challenge. Without growth, we're just going through the motions."

What are you doing to invest in your growth? Don’t work faster, work smarter by making a commitment to invest in yourself. There is no better time than NOW!

How to increase the chances of success in what you do………

I recently attended an event at Entrepreneurial Spark and was bowled over by the palpable passion of the early stage or start up business owners.  It was inspiring and infectious and if you could bottle that stuff up and sell it you could make a fortune!!

It got me thinking about passion…….. There are many ingredients that contribute to an individual’s success, but at the heart of it lies passion. There are countless examples of this in history eg Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Beethoven (did you know that he was deaf!!)…… And in business today…... James Dyson, Richard Branson and Alan Sugar…….

Each and every one us of is capable of extraordinary things if we tap into our passion……..  A really inspiring example of this is Amy Purdy. Her passion was snowboarding, but aged 19 she lost both legs below the knee…… Many people would think that this was the end of the dream but Amy didn’t and went onto to win Gold medals as a pro snow boarder…….. her passion compelled her to see beyond her challenges and as she would say it made her ‘get creative!’

Passion in action is wonderful to watch. It translates into conviction and consummate belief in what you are doing and the difference that you are going to make in the world whether through a product, a service or an organisation. Passion helps us see obstacles differently, without it we tend to give up and the obstacles become roadblocks that mark the road as a dead end. Passion means we persevere, we take risks, we get resourceful, we don’t accept no for an answer and we keep striving to move forwards towards our goal. Passion takes courage, courage to overcome fear, courage to overcome setbacks..... To see a vision bigger than ourselves......and to keep moving towards it......

When we align our passions with our goals we can go far……. This is particular true in business.  Passionate people who believe in what they are doing convey an authenticity that can’t be faked….. A person’s passion can often inspire us. I often hear the phrase, ‘people buy from people’. 

So….how can you increase the chances of success in what you do? Be passionate about what you are doing. It will come across in your energy, your language and your body language and in business those who are passionate about what they do are much more likely to be successful than those who are doing something without heart……. What difference are you making?

5 Tips to overcome setbacks and challenges

While watching the latest series of Masterchef …… (How much does Greg Wallace love his food??!!), I was struck by the strength of the emotions that the contestants experienced as they found out their fate: the elation of those who had ‘gotten one of the coveted Masterchef aprons’ and the disappointment of those who didn’t. However, even more interesting, was how some of the people who didn’t get through felt it was the end of the road for them and their dream, while for others it was disappointing but it wasn’t the end…. just a setback and they would find another way forward.

...Think back to when you first started your business or took on your current leadership role…. I imagine you were full of enthusiasm and motivation and excited by the possibilities and how great it was all going to be……If you’re still in that place then I have no doubt that you are an inspiration for those around you. Lucky them! However, for many of us when we first embark on a new venture our motivation and enthusiasm is high but then as time goes on  and we experience the twists and turns and ups and downs and setbacks our motivation can take a dip and we can start to question what we are doing and whether it can actually work. The truth is this is normal, but it’s what you do with it that will make all the difference to you, your business or your organisation…..

So what would your typical response be in this kind of situation? How would you feel? What would you do? Would you react, respond or just think that it was all doomed to failure?

I once read that people who avoid failure can never be successful…. Thomas Edison, famous scientist and inspiring leader said about overcoming failure, ‘Many of life’s failures are men who didn’t realise how close they were to success when they gave up.’

It is clear that we cannot always choose or control what happens in any given situation or how people act towards us,  but we certainly can choose how we respond to it…….  And that is where our power lies……… Here are some things to that you could do when facing a setback or challenge:

1.    Talk to your someone eg coach, colleague. This will help you gain perspective.

2.    Allow yourself to feel what you feel. This is about being kind to yourself and accepting where you are at. It is all part of the journey.

3.    Ask yourself what you could have done differently? Reflecting on the situation will help you see areas where you could have made different choices or perhaps taken different actions. This will help you be specific about what it was that occurred that made it a setback or a challenge as opposed to thinking that the whole thing was a failure.

4.    Ask yourself what could you can learn from the experience?

5.    Take action! Implement the actions that need to be done to ensure that the same setback doesn't happen again. This will help you to feel that you are taking control of the situation. It will also help you move forward, which will in itself alter your perspective…..

Setbacks and challenges will always happen, they are opportunities to help us learn and grow and develop.….. However, it can also be helpful when planning to think in advance about what setbacks and challenges could potentially come up.... Now of course that leads us into planning but that is another subject for another day! 

5 questions to ask yourself when you want to try something new but just can’t seem to take that first step....

A brand new year, a brand new website and a brand new blog…It reminds me of being a kid on the first day of a new year at school and you were given a beautiful empty jotter and there were endless possibilities about how the pages would be filled! I’m really quite excited to be embarking on my journey of blogging, simply because I love to write especially about things I am passionate about and I believe that it is always good to do new things regularly and I hope to be able encourage and inspire you.

When was the last time you tried out something new in your business or your organisation? Do you actively look for new opportunities or ways of doing things or do you just do what you do because that’s what you’ve always done? It may be that what you’re doing works, but without building in time to evaluate how do you know this for sure? Perhaps there is something else that you could do that would bring you even better results?

Sometimes we get so caught up in doing what is familiar that we cease to question if what we’re doing is taking us to where we want to go OR we just get so comfortable that we are in a rut without even realising it OR we have a wee voice in our head that wants to do something new or different but there’s something that just stops us from taking action…..  

So the next time you find yourself hesitating about trying something new or different ask yourself these five questions….

1.    What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? This helps create your ideal without your fears and worries blocking your thinking.

2.    What benefits will this have for me, my business or my organisation? This will help you tap into your motivation and what you are going to gain as a result of taking action.

3.    What could be some initial steps that could take? This will help you come up with some suggestions for action.

4.    What would stop me from taking these steps? When setting out to do anything new it is helpful to be aware of what could get in your way of taking action.

5.    What help and support do I need to take action? Who can help, support and encourage you along the way to help keep you on track.

Life is for living and living is all about the experiences that we create. Make small changes… they can lead to big things….. As Lao-tzu said, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. Go on…..take that first step…… Who knows where it will end up taking you!

New website for LSB Partnerships Ltd.

Hello,

Wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year.